Back in the Saddle
by MollyCarpenter
Summary: How to revitalize a fandom. Meta as heck, be warned.


From the LiveJournal of prentice_molly, February 2012

**From the Ashes, a Fire**

Guys.

Guys.

I just got an email from Amazon. An author alert.

I just got an email from Amazon that says there's a new book coming from one of my favorite authors.

I just got an email from Amazon that says _Carver Edlund_ is publishing a new book.

The title of it is _Lazarus Rising_.

:ded:

_mood:_ excited

One Week Later

**New Book Info Roundup**

So, OK, thank you to everyone who has been helping me on the research extravaganza (Yes, Dean, we are all nerds, thank you) that has taken over my life since the LR news broke. I'm going to do my best to put everything together in a succinct narrative. All statements of fact in the following should be taken with the proviso "to the best of my knowledge and ability to research"; references are under the cut at the bottom.

1\. Carver Edlund's real name is-or _was_-Charles "Chuck" Shurley. I say "was" because the man disappeared in late spring of 2010 and no one's heard from him since. (This is why I'm OK with putting his real name out in public, BTW.)

2\. At the time of his disappearance he was dating someone who was a big fan of the novels.

3\. The someone in question has spent the last two years arranging funding to get the SPN series revamped. All the books have been correctly renumbered, there's (_epically_) better cover art, the first book has been renamed from _Supernatural_ to _The Woman in White_, the copy-editing has been redone, etc. The whole current series is available in both hard-copy and e-book form at The Big South American River.

4\. There are on the order of forty (!) more books, to be published in internal chronological order (thank _God_), following the adventures of Sam and Dean after Dean gets out of Hell.

5\. There's going to be a new, very powerful character introduced in the first of the new books, which is to be titled _Lazarus Rising*. _

6\. The next two _Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean_ and _In the Beginning. _Further new titles are pending.

7\. We're not actually sure whether the new manuscripts were written by Edlund/Shurley. His ex claims that they were. His ex was also an enthusiastic fanficcer (some of you would recognize her name/LJ handle) back in the day.

That's all the facts. Now we move on to editorial commentary.

The thing is, I am prejudiced against the ex-girlfriend. I met her at the second con, and I was not impressed. Basically, picture the world's most exaggerated Stereotypical Fangirl, and that's her. (It doesn't help that she's an enthusiastic Wincest fan, either, but plenty of otherwise-rational people are, so I'm trying not to let that influence me.) It does not strike me as impossible that she's written basically a huge stack of fanfic and is getting it published.

Now let me be clear: If Chuck Shurley is not dead, he's gone to a heck of a lot of effort to make everyone think he is. I don't actually have a problem with the idea of someone making money off the Supernatural series who is _not_ Mr. Shurley; if he's dead, it's not like cash is going to help him. Goddamnit, I do want to know what happens to the boys! If these are in fact Shurley's manuscripts, I just want them published and I don't give a rat's ass who gets the royalty checks; might as well be the person who put time and effort into getting them out there at all.

If these are Ex-Girlfriend's fanfics, though...that I'm less pleased about. It's not that it's going to make Shurley's ghost (heh) feel any better to have his authorial vision remain pristine, but I'm frankly not interested in forty (!) books of Wincest.

It's also possible that she took Shurley's notes for the next forty (!) books and fleshed them out, which would at least get us the bones of the plot he intended. I don't know.

At this point, I have bought LR and it'll be delivered to my e-reader on release day. I'm reserving judgement till I read it. In the meantime, someone should start a betting pool on how Dean gets out of Hell^.

*: "Four months ago, Dean went to Hell to save his brother's life. This morning, he crawled out of his own grave with no memory of how he got there. Now, he has to find Bobby, find Sam, and most importantly, **find out how he got out of Hell**."

^: Clawed his own way out: Awesome, but is even Dean _that_ awesome? Rescued by Sam: Well, the boy does have some powrz and a whole lot of motivation, and there's the Hellgate in Wyoming. Rescued by this new character: If so, why, what does the new character want in return and how is he/she/it/they that powerful?

_mood:_ thoughtful  
_location:_ home  
_music:_ Kansas, "Carry On My Wayward Son"


End file.
